The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

23 counties break jobless record!

October 2, 2018

By Oregon Employment Department,

Benton County had Oregon’s lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 2.8 percent in August 2018. Other counties with some of the lowest unemployment rates in August included Hood River (3.0%), Washington (3.1%), and Wheeler (3.1%). Eastern and Southern Oregon had higher unemployment rates in August 2018, which were still close to their record low unemployment rates since 1990. In Oregon, twenty-three counties had record low unemployment rates in August.

Grant County registered the highest unemployment rate for the month at 6.2 percent, which was Grant’s lowest unemployment rate since comparable records began in 1990.

Eleven of Oregon’s counties had unemployment rates below the statewide unemployment rate of 3.8 percent and thirteen were at or below the national rate of 3.9 percent.

Crook and Sherman counties saw their unemployment rates improve over the year by 1.0 percentage point, more than any other county. Other counties that saw their unemployment rate decrease were Gilliam (-0.9%), Jefferson (-0.9%), and Coos (-0.8%). No county saw their unemployment rate increase in August.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose in all six of Oregon’s broad regions between August 2017 and August 2018. The largest job gains occurred in Central Oregon (+3.1%). Southern Oregon (+2.9%), the Willamette Valley (+2.6%), the Portland area (+1.7%), the Oregon Coast (+1.7%), and Eastern Oregon (0.5%) also added jobs.